Global warming is one of the greatest threats to long term human survival. Our future will depend on how each of us responds today to rising carbon dioxide levels. The greatest changes will come not from government decisions, statistics or graphs on global warming, but from consumer choices, which will in turn drive business activity. Global warming represents the greatest new market opportunity for decades and will drive business investment for several generations.

Extreme statements and dire warnings about global warming have already gripped the imagination of billions of people. But what is the truth? What is the real evidence linking carbon dioxide to climate change, and how can we be sure this is mainly due to human activity, and not some massive over-reaction drummed up by eco-freaks and business speculators.

How hot will things really have to get before there is a catastrophe? Are we already too late to change the future? Who will be the winners and losers in a hot world? What will global warming cost? How will global warming affect our personal lives and our future wealth?

What steps should we take to stop or reverse global warming? How will governments try to force us to change? How will society move towards a carbon free world? What should our own personal response be?

The evidence linking human activity to climate change is now overwhelming. The economic growth of India and China alone could be enough to tip the world over the edge into an almost unstoppable process, when added to the extravagant waste of industrialised nations.

Most large cities in the world are likely to be hit by rising sea levels - which could eventually flood large areas by more than a metre. Some countries will be turned to desert. Hundreds of millions of people will be short of fresh water by 2050. Other parts of the world will be hit by destructive storms and floods, costing billions a year in reconstruction. 400,000 square miles of Arctic ice have already melted in the last 30 years. A quarter of all animal and plant species could be wiped out within the next thirty.

Most children alive today will find their future lives are deeply affected by new patterns of disease, extreme weather patterns, and by strict controls on energy and carbon use. Future generations will judge us by how we respond to global warming.

Since much of the blame for global warming will be laid on the wealthiest nations by the poorest, and on the poorest nations by the wealthiest, the stage is set for some of the most dangerous conflicts our world has ever seen. As the world's most wasteful user of energy, the United States will find new global forces lined up to attack politically, economically and through violence. We can expect a vigorous and aggressive American reaction, which in turn will increase global tension. Many governments will come to see global warming as an urgent issue of national security, far more serious than the threat from terrorism.

The future of global warming will be shaped by emotion rather than science. Companies will go faster and further than governments in a rush to save the planet, and consumer pressure will change every product and service sold. Energy companies are already changing their policies and will try to reinvent themselves as saviours of humankind.

Some countries and companies will make billions and others will be wiped. A hundred million small innovations and personal decisions will have a dramatic impact on carbon use. Global warming will also create the greatest financial frauds the world has ever known: super-criminals trading non-existent virtual assets on carbon-saving exchanges, and why governments will be slow to act. Expect many carbon trading / carbon offset / carbon neutral schemes to be exposed as international scandals.

Faced with an unimaginable catastrophe we can expect the global response to global warming to dwarf anything ever seen before in the history of the world, in terms of the numbers of people participating, and the cost involved.

These massive efforts will eventually succeed in dealing with many of the worst threats, and in so doing they will reshape life on earth - not only how we live, but also the way the world is run. It will change forever how people think about themselves and the small planet we live on.

But along the way we can expect many challenges, crisis and conflict, as the poorest 4 billion people on earth struggle (or fail) to survive in a world that has been poisoned for many decades by carbon burning in the wealthiest nations.